Saturday, February 25, 2006

Right after we took this last picture Brad wanted to swing. So we put him in and after a few minutes he wanted out. Before I could get him out he threw up all over himself. After we got him home and gave him some Gatorade, he threw up again. Doug phoned the doctor and she told him Brad has a virus that's been going around. Apparently we can expect more throwing up for the next 24 hours and diarrhea for up to eight days. Lovely.

This is actually his first virus...he's had some colds and a sinus infection, but this is the first really messy thing. Poor baby. He seemed better after a nice bath and we put him down around 6:15 and haven't heard anything yet, though we're prepared to change the sheets all night long. I'll update tomorrow.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Today Brad and I went to the mall on the advice of Doug to check out a sale that a baby store was having on car seats. I didn't see anything worth buying, so we stopped for lunch at the food court. I love Arby's chicken salad sandwich, and I know Brad likes the fruit cup that comes with the kid's meal, so I ordered him a chicken fingers kid's meal. I dutifully tore apart the chicken into little pieces and poured the grapes and apples out of the fruit cup and let him eat.

He loves grapes, so those were the first to go. But he wouldn't touch the chicken. No, he wanted the apples. They were cut up into little pieces, so he put one in his mouth while I watched him carefully for signs of choking (we don't usually do apples in our house). He seemed to be doing well, so I went back to my sandwich. As I finished my lunch, it dawned on me that he was chewing the same piece of apple. He finally swallowed and picked up another piece (there must have been about 10 total). I looked at my watch...and kept looking at my watch...and 11 minutes later, I kid you not, he was done chewing the piece of apple and swallowed. Then he went for another piece.

So I hastily picked up a piece of chicken and put it in his mouth. He ate it and them promptly put another piece of apple in. And then he wouldn't eat any more chicken. We were sitting in that food court for an HOUR while Brad happily chewed on pieces of apple and looked around and smiled at passersby and generally enjoyed himself. I called Doug and told him we'd see him in a few days when Brad was done eating. When he had three pieces left I could stand it no longer and packed him up without too much protest (okay, I admit it, I bribed him with a balloon).

Not only has he figured out how to pause and re-start the music, he learned how to turn down the volume. He hasn't quite grasped turning it back up again, but he's working on it. So now when he has quiet playtime this is what I hear:

Thursday, February 23, 2006

In retrospect it probably wasn't a great idea to encourage Brad to play hide and seek during dinner. Although he did seem to enjoy the sausage and spinach rolls before he stopped eating.

I wish I had been able to take some bathtime pictures--he was in rare form tonight. Lately Brad has been giving me a hug during bathtime. Which is fine, because it is the end of the day and I don't mind getting a little wet. But tonight he gave me three hugs, the last two while he was covered in soap. So I not only got very wet but got very soapy. Oh well, at least I'm clean.

He had his first physical therapy appointment Wednesday, and we discovered that with the help of the orthotics (those wonderful, wonderful things) he has already met all but one of the goals we set for him in January. He still needs to get to a standing position completely on his own, but I can tell he'll be there soon. His next PT appointment is in April, so he's doing pretty well.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Friday, February 17, 2006

It's getting harder and harder to take really good pictures of Brad, because he won't sit still. Now that he knows how to walk, it's like he's afraid he's missing out on all sorts of fun in whatever part of the house he's not in. So he has to stop and go make sure there's not some secret party going on.

Not only that, but he's getting much more independent. More than once we've been walking in a parking lot and he'll let go of my hand and keep walking. He's not even 16 months! I thought the whole "I'm too big to hold Mommy's hand" thing wasn't supposed to be an issue for years!

Seriously though, I can't believe how big he's getting and how fast the time has flown by.

Oh, he LOVED these grapes. He'd get one in his mouth, walk off to the TV, turn around and come back, and get another grape. Then he'd go off again. He did this about seven times. Just one grape, no more.

He knows when it's time to eat!I had a minor computer crisis recently...all of my office programs stopped working, and I couldn't uninstall and reinstall the program. I lost all of my email, tasks, and contacts that I had accumulated over the past three years. To put it in the words of our very helpful computer guy, my mail identity was so large it "exploded." To make a long story short, he thinks he was able to recover some things and he's bringing over what's left of my email on Tuesday.

Which is why you haven't had any new pictures in awhile...my computer has been being repaired (hopefully). Well, I have the computer now, and here are the pics.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

I'll be going into the office for three days in a row this week, and doing some heavy duty mystery shopping Saturday morning, and entertaining guests Saturday night, and going to church and doing more mystery shopping on Sunday, so these will be the last pics for awhile...

Ask me a question. Ask me how I kept Brad awake in the car for an hour and twenty minutes when he had just eaten lunch, hadn't napped in several hours, was nice and toasty warm and snuggled in his car seat with the sun shining in his face? Ask me how I kept him up.

I waited until his droopy eyes had closed and his body relaxed and he looked so peaceful and then I said, very quietly, "cracker?"

He said, "Cracker? You have crackers? I'll take a cracker! Right here, cracker, please! I wasn't sleepy, no ma'am, no how, not me! I'm wide awake and ready for a cracker! Pass them over here! Cracker, cracker, cracker, cracker, cracker!"

He stayed awake until we got home and I was able to deposit him in his crib for a nice long nap. I'm so good.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Okay, I know my son is a boy. But the first time the thought, 'He's SUCH a boy,' crossed my mind was yesterday in the kitchen. I was making dinner and the recipe called for ketchup. I dutifully pulled it out and started squeezing it into the measuring cup. Well, there wasn't much left, so when I squeezed it made...well, you know...that sound. Brad immediately stopped, looked up, and laughed. I did it again, and he laughed harder than I've ever seen him laugh before. I did it a few more times and I thought he was going to keel over, he was laughing so hard. It's nice to know that sort of low-brow humor is always appealing to men worldwide.

These are pictures of him at dinner tonight, also illustrative of what it is to have a boy. He put food EVERYWHERE. Not on purpose, he just happened to be eating extremely messy leftovers. At one point (and believe me, I'm SO sorry I didn't get pictures of this), he had a ravioli stuck to his forehead. When I saw it I nudged Doug and the two of us laughed hysterically, and very quietly, into our hands while Brad tried to figure out where he had put that ravioli. He found it after a few minutes, looked at it, and stuck it in his mouth. Brad is so entertaining. I don't know why we even have a TV.

Oh, and this morning, unprompted, he said, 'shoe.' Every day, more and more, I love being a mother. Especially now when Brad is starting to talk and really understands me and laughs at everything (though he's always been a big laugher) and can start to really play games. I love watching him learn new things...I could go on for several more paragraphs in this vein, so I'll stop now...being a mom is so MUCH FUN!!

Friday, February 03, 2006

It was an absolutely gorgeous day today. Who wants to stay inside and put square blocks in square holes? Not Brad! Who wants to stay inside and pore over legal documents? Not Nicole! So we went to the park...the swings, really. As soon as we pulled in the parking lot, Brad knew exactly what we were there for, and boy, was he excited! He tried to say swing--it came out more like 'shihn'--but he gets the idea. The boy was so happy he could hardly contain himself. I love days like today.